What does abyss mean?

Definitions for abyss
əˈbɪsabyss

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word abyss.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. abyss, abysmnoun

    a bottomless gulf or pit; any unfathomable (or apparently unfathomable) cavity or chasm or void extending below (often used figuratively)

Wiktionary

  1. abyssnoun

    A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable.

  2. abyssnoun

    Hell; the bottomless pit; primeval chaos.

  3. abyssnoun

    Infinite time; a vast intellectual or moral depth.

  4. abyssnoun

    The center of an escutcheon.

  5. Etymology: * First attested in the late 14th century.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Abyssnoun

    Etymology: abyssus, Lat. Ἄβυσσος, bottomless, Gr.

    Who shall tempt with wand’ring feet
    The dark, unbottom’d, infinite abyss,
    And, through the palpable obscure, find out
    This uncouth way. John Milton, Paradise Lost, b. ii. l. 405.

    The yawning earth disclos’d th’ abyss of hell:
    The weeping statues did the wars foretell,
    And holy sweat from brazen idols fell. John Dryden, Virg. Georg. i.

    For sepulchres themselves must crumbling fall
    In time’s abyss, the common grave of all. John Dryden, Juv. Sat. x.

    If, discovering how far we have clear and distinct ideas, we confine our thoughts within the contemplation of those things, that are within the reach of our understandings, and launch not out into that abyss of darkness, out of a presumption, that nothing is beyond our comprehension. John Locke.

    We are here to consider what is generally understood by the great abyss, in the common explication of the deluge; and ’tis commonly interpreted either to be the sea, or subterraneous waters hid in the bowels of the earth. Thomas Burnet, Theor. Earth.

    From that insatiable abyss,
    Where flames devour, and serpents hiss,
    Promote me to thy seat of bliss. Wentworth Dillon.

ChatGPT

  1. abyss

    An abyss is a very deep or seemingly bottomless chasm or cavity. This term is often used to describe a profound depth or vast empty space that is impossible to measure. In a figurative sense, it can also refer to a catastrophic situation or a state of immense or profound distress.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Abyssnoun

    a bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable, and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit

  2. Abyssnoun

    infinite time; a vast intellectual or moral depth

  3. Abyssnoun

    the center of an escutcheon

  4. Etymology: [L. abyssus a bottomless gulf, fr. Gr. bottomless; 'a priv. + depth, bottom.]

Wikidata

  1. Abyss

    In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the Abyss, or more fully, the Infinite Layers of the Abyss, is a chaotic evil-aligned plane of existence. It is one of a number of alignment-based Outer Planes that form part of the standard Dungeons & Dragons cosmology, used in the Planescape and Greyhawk campaign settings. The Abyss is also the name of one of the faith-based outer planes that form part of the Forgotten Realms cosmology. While the published 3rd-Edition source books indicate that the Abyss of the standard D&D cosmology is not the same plane as the Abyss of the Forgotten Realms cosmology, they are for all practical purposes identical.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Abyss

    a-bis′, n. a bottomless gulf: a deep mass of water.—adj. Abyss′al. [Gr. abyssos, bottomless—a, without, byssos, bottom.]

The Roycroft Dictionary

  1. abyss

    1. The measureless gulf between literature and the American magazine. 2. The distance between a thinker and an editorial writer.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. abyss

    A deep mass of waters; in hydrography it was synonymous with gulf.

Suggested Resources

  1. abyss

    Song lyrics by abyss -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by abyss on the Lyrics.com website.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of abyss in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of abyss in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of abyss in a Sentence

  1. Lewis Mumford:

    By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed.

  2. Ramana Pemmaraju:

    there has never been a moment in one's life when one might not have stumbled upon this strange reality: what am I doing, where am I so hurriedly running, what is my objective, this whole world is a rat race and I'm going no where, with out any goal, isn't it?. this thought comes to me very often. alas! what to do, don't know what and where to knock the door and experience reality. no sooner that I try, I'm again fallen into the dismal depths of abyss, into the worldly affairs”

  3. Instructor Amy Roat:

    Very often you send papers home and they disappear into the abyss of someone's backpack, never to be seen again.

  4. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov:

    The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.

  5. Credit Suisse analysts:

    The most likely outcome, with a 75 percent probability, is a deal, an unfortunate but predictable feature of European crisis decision-making is that such deals are only ever made at the last minute, 'at the edge of the abyss'.

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"abyss." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Nov. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/abyss>.

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